There is a great deal of competition for viewers in the new age of television. The old commercial-based national networks, which are free and generate revenues by selling broadcast advertising, are being supplanted by fee-based television services such as those provided by cable companies. The new television providers are subscription-based and generate a large part of their revenue by charging a subscription fee for their services. The subscription based television providers generally require a special cable connection or a wireless connection using a descrambler device to decode and view their television signal. Thus, unless a viewer has paid a fee to become a subscriber, the viewer cannot view the subscription-based television programs.
The subscription-based television providers deliver special programming previously unavailable over the older commercial-based no-fee television networks. In the past television service providers such as cable companies have advertised to solicit subscriptions to their cable television services by numerous methods. These past methods include telemarketing, direct mail campaigns, new move-in packages to apartment complex inhabitants and even direct sales facilitated by sending out sales personnel to meet with and solicit potential subscribers to the television service.